As the cable industry has grown, cable operators are continuing to configure their systems to offer more channels having programming for both general and targeted audiences. Some systems now offer more than one hundred different channels. Not surprisingly, one of the most frequent actions performed by a television viewer is channel selection and changing. Thus, a viewer may consult a programming guide and select a desired program for viewing or may switch around to a number of channels until finding a program for viewing.
Each system operator of a cable system sets up the relationship of channel numbers to program sources in a different manner and program guides utilized by subscribers are set up according per network in units of time. Thus, it is desirable that a viewer by provided some information about the channel he or she is viewing. To this end, subscriber converters in cable television typically include a display such as an LED display which indicates the channel number associated with the channel selected by a viewer. Similarly, many televisions now include the capability of displaying the channel number at, for example, the upper right corner of the screen, when a channel is tuned. However, while this feedback may indicate to a viewer which channel number has been tuned, it provides no indication of the program on the channel or its origin. A viewer must utilize a program guide, for example, to ascertain information about the program or rely on memory as to which channel numbers are associated with MTV, CBS, NBC, etc.